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I started following Internet businesses back in the mid-90’s and continue to be amazed at the variety and sheer number of creative business techniques and selling ideas that I’ve seen during that time.

Of all the trends, promotions, sales, and marketing ploys I witnessed, I am continually amazed at one particular selling strategy I’ve seen that has enormous power and sales potential yet very few marketers ever consider using it.

Here it is:

One of the hottest “types” of information products online today are “how to” guides or instructions that let users accomplish tasks and projects that they didn’t know how to do previously.

In every niche, it seems, there are opportunities for developing these types of products.

People are somehow attracted or drawn to learning about subjects that will help them fulfill their dreams.

But that’s not exactly the strategy that I want to mention here.

People buy these “how to” products in great numbers; but there is even a more attractive strategy that some have developed that outsells the “how to do it” products hands down.

It’s the type of product that actually accomplishes the task for you.

You buy the product and it automatically provides you a result or an outcome.

Here are a couple of examples:

Instead of buying an ebook that explains “ten different ways to identify key words for your specific niche web site,” you would sell a ton more products if you developed a piece of software that simply and automatically created that same list of key words for you – no fuss, no work, no hassle.

Here’s another: many new business owners will buy information products about how to set up and develop a profitable web site.

But the real money will be made by those creative types that offer to set everything up and get the web site running for you – without your involvement (or with minimal intervention).

People are impatient. Time is of great value.

They are anxious to be gratified immediately when they purchase a product (benefit.)

Many want to learn; but many, many more want all the work done for them.

If you think about ways to make products and systems easy to use, “automatic,” push a button and it’s done, “system in a box,” etc, you will be on the road to unlocking one of the Internet’s great marketing strategies that many don’t understand or think about.

The done for you (DFY) solutions will almost always outsell the do it yourself (DIY) solutions.

Here’s just one example that many of you will remember.

Think back decades ago (if you’re old enough) and you will remember a time when you didn’t see many car washes.

When I was growing up, we always kept a bucket of sponges, soap products, towels, car waxes and polishes, chamois, and window cleaner on a storage shelf in the garage. Every couple of weeks I would earn some “allowance” money washing my parent’s cars in our driveway. Cleaning one car could take up to a half hour or more depending on whether I waxed the car after giving it a wash.

All the neighbors washed and waxed their own cars at home.

Jump forward to today. How often do you wash and wax your own car. Never? Once in a great while?

Times have changed. It’s way more convenient to drive your car through a commercial car wash than to do it yourself. It’s faster, easier, and more convenient. The “done for you” solution makes more sense than the “do it yourself” solution, even if it costs a few dollars. You are willing to pay for the quick, easy, immediate result, hassle-free alternative!

Now think of how you might adapt this same DFY principle, “done for you,” to your product or service based online business. Consumers want benefits and solutions. They would rather have them handed over without any work on their part rather than working themselves to derive the same benefit.

You’ve heard the phrase that states you’re handed something “on a silver platter.” The saying has been around for ages and suggests that something is given to you that you don’t necessarily deserve, that you haven’t earned, or that you are simply “lucky” to receive it.

It has particularly important application to marketing online.

It’s something you may not have given much thought … but the concept will make you a lot of money in your business if you figure out how to implement it.

I call this idea “the Magic of The Silver Platter.” It’s actually nothing new – been around for decades.

I am going to reveal a very simple Internet marketing secret that took me many years to grasp. Some of you have figured it out already, and some of you will never catch on. It can be applied to any business model and it works perfectly in any niche or market.

I love to teach and help people in their businesses. I always thought that was my “calling.” I have come to realize, however, that effective teaching (mentoring or coaching) can only be realized when you have students that truly want to learn and work and stay the course through to the end. Profitable business owners almost always are hard workers, disciplined, persistent, and not easily halted by problems, road blocks and temporary set-backs.

And therein lies the problem.

The number of people online that want to study, and work hard, and learn something, especially in Internet marketing, pales in comparison to the number of people that simply want things done for them. They want the solution handed to them on a silver platter – no thinking involved, no effort to implement, just do it for me now! Some refer to it as D-F-Y, “done for you.”

How many online courses have you purchased that you never really followed through to the end? How many ebooks have your purchased to learn a topic and you never finished reading or you didn’t implement what you learned? In fact, you may never have even opened up the book!

I am not criticizing this preference for the “done for you” mentality. I have adopted it myself for certain tasks – I’d rather pay someone to just “get it done” than to take the time and expend the effort to learn how to do that same task myself. It makes sense, right? Why waste a lot of time with a learning curve when you may never use that education again?

Obviously, when you’re just starting out an online business you may not have the choice to pay someone to do your tasks. And there is certainly something to be said for learning to do things yourself – you then have a working knowledge of what’s involved and you can speak intelligently about doing the task.

But here’s the secret . . .

As an Internet marketer, you will make ten times more money if you provide “done for you” silver platter solutions in your products and services as opposed to offering courses and lessons that “teach” people how to do those same things. Products that “teach how” will never be as profitable as the done-for-you version. Services that give a solution on a silver platter will always be in demand.

Now that may not seem “right” or “fair” or “justified” to those that sweat and toil to find and put into place solutions to the problems that you face in your business. You did the work and only you deserve the reward … right?

Here’s the thing … grasp this concept and run with it in your business … regardless of what is fair, OK? Most people in today’s society are searching for and hoping to find “comfortable,” “easy,” “quick,” “simple,” “comfort zone,” “non-threatening,” “automatic,” “done for you,” “instant,” “I want it now,” “give it to me” answers and solutions to their problems, wants, and desires! Yes, that’s a long sentence, but I really hope you understand the concept. People are becoming lazy (yes, I hate to use that term) and consumed with instant gratification without work solutions to the things they want.

If you, as the product or service owner, will recognize this concept and how you can implement “done for you” solutions in your own niche and business … you stand to profit handsomely from you understanding and implementation of the principle.

Always be thinking about your products, your business model, your daily business tasks, and what you can do in your own business to provide easy, simple, “done for you” no work solutions for your customers. I’m guessing nine out of ten of them are of that mindset.

[ Note: You can always provide more advanced, work-necessary, hands on solutions for your customers that don’t care for silver platter solutions and systems. ]

I hope you will test and track your results with this secret in your business – I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.